章節 4: Interlude: I will win but never fight, that is the art of war.
Tuesday 7. June 2547
Lieutenant colonel Williams, garrison commander, New Shanghai military district
The major could feel a blanket of fear setting over those currently in the command center as they received news about ODP 1s destruction. They all knew it was inevitable but being prepared meant nothing in the face of an enemy with orbital superiority and a numbers advantage.
He could only take solace in the fact that a civilian ship had gotten away carrying news of their situation and did so seemingly undetected. They had flown under clouds, deep in the atmosphere and on low power until they were on the opposite side of the planet where they finally entered slipspace. Once HIGHCOMM got the news, they would likely be swarmed with allies, the only question was how long it would take.
As he looked around the room full of empty coffee cups and energy bars, he once again considered whether he had distributed his forces the best way available to him. He had pulled the civilians into the core of the city, getting as many as he could behind an improvised defensive perimeter. He had decided to deploy his three infantry companies closer to the edges of the city, with his command company staying in the relatively small military district on the west side of the city, close to the space elevator and spaceport. His artillery company would provide support as needed, and his only armored company would act as a QRF in case of a breach in the defensive line.
He had personally gone through every single piece of intel they had multiple times. From what was sent back by their ships and satellites, to data from their F41s when they intercepted the enemy fighters attacking the ODPs. It was thanks to all this information that he was almost entirely sure that whoever they were fighting, they were not any insurrectionists.
sighing deeply, he started going through the data again, hoping to find something he had missed, anything that would give his forces better chances in a battle.
And, despite knowing, intellectually on some level, that there was nothing more he could do until the enemy made their move, he was restless.
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27 hours after confrontation
Captain Icitana Hilnius, aboard the THS Resolution
As she looked down at the world that so many lives were lost fighting for, all she could feel was disgust, or perhaps even hate. They had paid dearly to take this world, not even wanting it in the first place, and when they were forced, they got almost nothing. All there was on the planet were some mines, visible from space, and a city with a population of maybe a couple hundred thousand. The one point of interest was what appeared to be a functional space elevator.
Such a megastructure was not something anyone expected from a species that still used what amounted to fancy chemical drives. She would have called even gone so far as to call them primitive if not for the fact that they had thrashed her own force so thoroughly while badly outnumbered.
They began shooting at the platforms from such a range where they could dodge the incoming projectiles, but this was not successful. Their own slower shells took too long to reach the enemy, and the platforms were not completely immobile. Not capable of fast movement to be sure, but an acceleration of even half a meter a second was enough to dodge her shells.
Not wishing to risk her ships against the platforms, she sent out her fighters loaded with disruptor torpedoes, in an attempt to render the main enemy weapon useless. She sent them out again and again, and while the first few attack runs were intercepted by planet-based spacecraft, they were badly outnumbered by her own fighters and eventually withdrew.
With nothing left between them, her fighters preformed multiple attack runs, destroying point defense, and hampering mobility. Their first target was what appeared to be a not entirely complete station, and it succumbed some 9 hours after the initial confrontation, to the fifth sortie. She gave her fighter pilots some time to rest, around an hour, before they were sent out again. It was with the thirteenth sortie that they finally destroyed the second platform.
Despite her losing a couple of her fighters, it was still a significant victory, identifying that the threat posed by the platforms to be drastically reduced without an escort. She could, however, already see a second side to this weakness. That is, if a fleet was present a siege could be very difficult for the attacker.
Walking away from the viewing port and toward the bridge she contemplated what would come. She was glad she was getting reinforcements to replace the cowardly Captain Octaso Honolius. With a competent commander such as general Arterius they would easily secure a beach point on the planet itself.
As long as no enemy naval reinforcements came, her role was done. She had done everything she could, but still did not feel as if it was enough somehow.
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Saturday, 9. June 2547
Fleet Admiral Lord Terrence Hood, HIGHCOMM meeting
As the highest ranked man in the human military apparatus, it was his responsibility to decide what course should be taken by the military in the coming years. This responsibility had not changed in the recent years, and it did not change when they received word of a violent first contact. He could already feel the responsibility starting to grow heavier, keeping pace with the defunding of the navy. Truly, it was the way of politicians to thank their saviors by defunding them.
The research they had managed to do in recent years had paid off, it was only thanks to the waypoint network, a new communications system with broadcasters in locally significant worlds that they received important news from the other side of UNSC space. Before it would have taken weeks for a courier to arrive, meaning any response from outside a given system would only come significantly later, oftentimes after the cause of the alert ad already been dealt with, or when there was nothing left for them to aid.
With the insurrectionist threat now laid low, the UEG no longer saw the need for the kind of funding they had been receiving at the height of the crisis, circa 29'. They were already tightening their belts in anticipation of what would come. Research projects, ones which had previously enjoyed unlimited funding, had already started having their deadlines extended and their budgets limited due to simply no longer being entirely worth their price.
But even the troubles he could foresee were nothing compared to the looming shadow of ONI.
They were becoming a threat, one which made him uneasy, especially when he looked at who was in charge of the whole thing. Margaret Paragonsky had never liked the civilian government, or the fact that her organization was subservient to any other. This alone would not be alone to cause alarm but when it was combined with her competence, it truly was something worthy of fear. Her leadership changed ONI from its state when she took control, mostly fulfilling its stated purpose of intelligence gathering, if with a bit of overreach, and turned it into a juggernaut.
'If only she did not think that her ruling us all was truly what was best for humanity. If it were nothing but hubris and deception and more people realized her end goal, then I could move against her more openly. With her charisma and control over what her people see, there is no way that there would not be conflict, there seems to be no clean path forward yet again.'
Perhaps the best example for a devoted follower was Margarets protégée, Serin Osman. A failed spartan, thoroughly indoctrinated int believing that everything they did was for the betterment of humanity. Her personal belief that Margaret was doing what was necessary and willingness to ignore the corpses at her feet was what stayed his hand.
Margarets ONI was a kingdom hidden within the empire of the UEG. So many black sites, secret outposts and even entire naval bases hidden away from but he highest ranking admirals that they could boast an economy of their own, contained entirely within this one monolithic organization.
They also had supreme control over propaganda and news. Their efforts to lessen separatist sentiment and improve recruitment rates was so great, the generation raised on their propaganda was boosting their recruitment numbers so high that on some planets they were reaching double that of the goals that had originally been set some five years ago.
Realizing he was starting to go on a tangent in his own head he redirected his thoughts back to the matter at hand.
The situation was thus: It may still not have been a hundred percent confirmed, but their best analysts had gone over the sensors data they had received and, after careful consideration, conceded that the personal note from the LTCOL about this possibly being first contact was likely to be correct.
They would have to do something and fast.
Before he could speak though, Margaret beat him to the punch: "Now that everyone seems to be in attendance, I do believe we may begin this meeting. I presume you have all read our information packets?"
Upon seeing a wave of nods from the various admirals, she continued: "Then I shall jump straight to what I wish to say. My agents have detained the crew of the ship from new shanghai, along with anyone they talked to that we know of. The ships database has been copied and then scrubbed. We have secured the initiative; it is now up to us how we wish to present this situation to the civilian government."
It was a sound decision. Not letting people descend into a panic with unsanctioned news of a world already having fallen, instead giving them the same news, covered in propaganda of course, and set just the right way so that blame if something went even more wrong could fall on anyone but ONI.
"Good decision, but do we have any suggestions as to how we should respond? Please present your suggestions." He asked the gathered staff.
After a moment of silence it was Rear admiral Hieronymus Michael Stanforth of ONI section three to become the first to offer his ideas: "I suggest sending a team of our SPARTAN IIs, possibly even IIIs to gather intel on this force if they have landed on the planet. IIIs would be the better choice if we wish to use the stealthy approach."
"Very well, who is in support of this decision?"
An overwhelming majority were for, and not unsurprisingly so. SPARTANs had become their hammer, and when one has a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. They were used for many purposes, being the single most successful ONI project, and one of the most highly classified, along with things such as semi-active camouflage, and the inner workings of the waypoint network.
"Very well, Margaret, I trust ONI to execute this decision, and please do notify section 4 as well, if you haven't already that is."
"I myself have but one more thing to add: I do believe that the commander should be posthumously awarded. Despite firing first, there was precedent for this decision. You all likely remember the tactic of luring out our valuable ships to destroy them while they inspect a nonresponding ship without IFF. He also managed to achieve great success in the engagement itself, before being destroyed."
Some others gave their thoughts on what should be done about the immediate situation, and it was decided that a battle group would be assembled under the command of one admiral Isaiah Mareby.
This battlegroup, provisionally named x-ray, would then proceed to New Shanghai and attempt to negotiate one last time before, hopefully, pushing the aliens out f the system.
In any case, all they could do now was wait for further developments.
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Saturday, 9. June 2547
Dr. Catherine Elisabeth Halsey, [Redacted]
"Can you believe it Déjà? That we would find an alien civilization now, of all times?"
Walking through the dark halls characteristic of an ONI base, she whispered to herself: "I am excited beyond belief- excited to see what shall be discovered in the coming years, by the possibilities. Tumultuous times are coming, and unrest or unsatisfaction with ones own circumstances is the driver for all development. I do wonder though, what role my spartans shall play…"
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